Program: GS-2015A-Q-72

We propose to explore the fundamental physics of nonradiative shocks and cosmic ray acceleration through GMOS images and spectra of optical filaments in SN1006 that we have recently identified in deep H-alpha images. Previous studies by ourselves and others have concentrated on the NW rim where the optical emission is brightest, but this results from an anomalously high pre-shock density and is not typical of SN1006 as a whole. Our new observations show that faint Balmer filaments surround virtually the entire periphery, including the NE and SW portions where hard X-ray and gamma-ray emission indicates that electrons are being accelerated to TeV energies. Ions are almost certainly accelerated in these same regions, to produce cosmic rays. From the profiles of the broad Balmer lines in the new spectra, we will measure the temperature of hot post-shock protons and obtain a definitive measurement of the fraction of shock energy converted into cosmic rays.